Texas Wildfires

[Lanky Livingston]

As you may or may not know, extreme drought conditions have caused a very dry Central Texas to go up in flames, aided by winds from Lee (no rain, but plenty of wind. Lee is a bastard!). Bastrop county is burning right now, with 25,000 acres on fire.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/05/us-texas-wildfires-idUSTRE78426D20110905

For those that would like to help, you can donate to Central Texas Red Cross here.

 

[Nobody]

That sucks. We've been dealing with a bad wildfire here since about June that still isn't out yet, so I know how miserable dealing with them can be. It's a damn shame Lee didn't veer off to the northwest.

 

[burgold]

Michelle Bachman just said that the fires were due to the people of Texas electing Rick Perry and now God is punishing them.

 

[Goaldeje]

Michelle Bachman just said that the fires were due to the people of Texas electing Rick Perry and now God is punishing them.

 

[Nobody]

Michelle Bachman just said that the fires were due to the people of Texas electing Rick Perry and now God is punishing them.

You are now the king of the internet

 

[Neophyte]

Michelle Bachman just said that the fires were due to the people of Texas electing Rick Perry and now God is punishing them.

Not far off. State funding of volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit under Perry and those same volunteer departments are responsible for protecting much of the state that is currently burning.

I'm wondering how that will get spun by both sides...

 

[burgold]

And that is the sincere and best sentiment.

Worried for a lot of folks over there.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Picture of the smoke cloud from my office - crazy!

http://twitpic.com/6htl7r

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Talking with a coworker this morning about the idiots driving around Houston, still tossing their cigarette butts out their windows. Texas is literally burning to the ground, there has been extreme drought conditions, everything is super dry, and these idiots are tossing their cigarette butts out their windows. My faith in humanity slips a little every day.

 

[fansince62]

Michelle Bachman just said that the fires were due to the people of Texas electing Rick Perry and now God is punishing them.

Obama just announced the fires were Bush's fault and that he was sending corpse men to help save lives.

 

[Goaldeje]

"Corpse" men?

 

[Burgundy Burner]

There could be some hope...

A dude named Nate. It's 50-50 as to whether he can make a dent on the fires, drought, and heat in Texas. He's down in the Bay of Campeche and is expected to do a long looping maneuver through the middle of next week. This will allow Nate to gain strength and obtain a lot of moisture.

The current landfall projection would suggest close to Brownsville by the middle of next week. However, several models are trying to suggest that Nate could head more towards Corpus or somewhere just above that area. Don't be surprised if the models trend more in this direction for the next couple of days.

If Nate goes into Corpus or just to the north, many areas around south Texas and southeast Texas could see a prolonged period of moisture. But like we have seen with Lee in the southeast U.S., the large amounts of rain will be a good thing. Those areas needed a storm like Lee and they got it.

Texas needs for Nate to take the aforementioned path. It could be a drought buster, a fire killer, and a heat reliever all in one. Best scenario is to hope for a weak hurricane with a lot of rain. Then, if it can slowly move into central and north Texas, this would be the ideal solution.

I'll keep a watch on the models.

 

[burgold]

Wow, what a thing when you have to hope a hurricane hits you...

 

[Burgundy Burner]

And that hope has faded.

Nate will slide into Mexico in the coming days - several hundred miles south of Brownsville. The culprit is the same elongated high pressure system that has been sitting over Texas all summer.

Texas will get relief at some point and that should come with the change in seasons - but that is still weeks away. This HP system is very strong and very stubborn. The bad news continues. La Nina has made an unexpected return for the fall and winter. It is a weak La Nina and if it lasts until spring/summer, Texas could continue in drought conditions and have a repeat of summer 2011 in 2012.

The above is not written in stone. The weather can change suddenly. My recommendation? Pray. Pray that Texas gets needed rains for drought relief. Pray that Texas can get rains that would extinguish the fires. Pray for rains that can end the heat wave.